With the wealth of educated minds in the world and the eloquence and intelligence of so many people, Syracuse chose a pop icon, Billy Joel, to deliver the commencement address. While bragging about his sixth honorary doctorate despite never graduating from HIGH SCHOOL, he encouraged the graduates to do "what you love, that way you will love what you do." And, when all else fails, you will have love to fall back on. Additionally, you will be good at what you do
because you will love what you are doing and you will be rewarded for doing a good job because in America people are rewarded for doing a good job (e.g. Billy Joel). (Yes, he did reference his own life as a positive example of this
stunning use of logic and argument.) Alongside Billy Joel, Syracuse awarded Doctorates to a businessman in charge of a multi-BILLION dollar industrial group, a Judge from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, an internationally known architect, and a named Professor from U Penn who is one of the most recognized experts in geriatrics. We were confused why these people were not even given a chance to speak. In the end, the crowd loved Billy Joel and the President of the University was swooning over him. We concluded that it was better to be popular in pop-culture than to be educated and well-thought.
